UPDATE TO THE SEARCH: Britt's email was incorrect. After twitter user @ClickClackTrack spoke with the co-creator of Shining Time Station, it was learned that he did indeed remember the pilot, and it DID NOT include Ringo's narration. I believe that Britt had gotten certain details mixed up (it's been nearly 40yrs lol) and thus it might not have even included Mike and Junior's score. You can read more here: twitter.com/clickclacktrack/status/1346505892460576768

I just want to say thanks to the Thomas and Friends community for being so supportive of this video! You guys rock!

"The Britt Allcroft Presents at the opening was part of each film because I thought of each and everyone of them as a present from me for every child watching them. Best, Britt" You're such an angel, Britt. We miss you indefinitely.

i actually can see from my house where the "island of sodor" was imagined to be, its a fictional island near my house, i think that's cool

People that has not seen either Teletubbies, Classic Thomas and Friends, or the classic Bob the Builder are not cultured.

Finally a video my pfp can approve of. Edit: changed it after about 5 months, probably gonna go back to it soon.

I’ve got so much nostalgia for Thomas and Friends. I used to collect all of the little model trains they made of the characters. It really went downhill when they switched to CGI.

You have now gained the attention of the KZfaq Thomas fandom. Treat them well, and you will have a strong ally.

Honestly despite me not being part of the Thomas community, I have to admit Thomas’ history is so fascinating. There are so many things to discover & learning about, I could talk about it all day.

Fun fact: Thomas is what introduced me to the concept of lost media. No, it wasn’t this pilot or The Missing Coach. It was the original version of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Of course, the lost scenes from the original version was released on the Shout! Factory release earlier this year. But this video combined my love for Thomas and lost media. Well done! I just subscribed. I loved your past videos on lost media as well! P.S. - I wouldn’t expect you to get anything from Sodor Island Forums. It’s just a Fansite and forum for adult Thomas fans, I’m a member there, and I know site owner Ryan is in touch with people on the CGI version of the series and more recently, the... disturbing 2D version that’s coming out next year. 🤮 But I wouldn’t be surprised if Britt has a copy in her possession. She probably has a lot of unreleased gems from her time with Thomas, and a majority of the behind-the-scenes and cut footage from the Magic Railroad Blu-ray originally came from Britt Allcroft’s personal collection. I’ve talked to her before numerous times, and she really is such a kind, great person! Best of luck on your future lost media searches!!

I loved this series. I was never scared of the dark moments. I always was blown away by them! Especially Duncan gets spooked!

When it comes to narration I think it might have been done by Britt herself as if you watch the rough cut of "Thomas and the magic railroad" she narrates the sections which are missing

The unreleased archive Thomas channel might have music that would’ve been featured in the pilot. also, realistically speaking, Mattel may have the pilot somewhere in their archives along with the missing coach footage and the leaked Magic Railroad Director’s Cut workprint. Or ITV may have the pilot in their own archives, you never know - but this quest is still getting better and better!

Yes finally a Thomas lost media video

Love the video, really great work! It's honestly immensely heartening seeing a complete outsider be equally as passionate about something the community's been trying to find for years lol. Couple things I wanted to mention: 1) Britt was likely misremembering and thinking of the 'final' version of Down The Mine - It's been 40 years and memories are foggy. Neither Mike nor Editor Micheal Dixon remember the pilot having music. 2) Dixion also confirmed the pilot had no intro, as it had been planned to have a 2D-animated one but it wasn't finished in time and thus not used. 3) Fuck SiF. They have everything and share nothing, and encourage crew to only talk to them. Seeing an outsider's research suffer due to their roadblocking is aggravating. We know at least two copies of the pilot exist, one with Britt, and one with her co-creator on Shining Time Station, Rick Sigglekow - the Mitton Estate junked a whole bunch of stuff a while ago so they likely don't have theirs. SiF almost certainly has a copy of at least one of these tapes though, the head admin got a whole bunch of stuff from the Mitton Estate two weeks after the man himself passed. The admin has never divulged any details about what he received, but they boasted in private that it was a lot...

Very good video, but slight nitpick: The models weren't rebuilt out of brass until much later, being done for Thomas and the Magic Railroad as the older models (made of Perspex) were starting to show their age by that point and it was feared that age would be even more apparent on the big screen.

This was a great video! Although the chances of the pilot being released nowadays are smaller than impossible due to the reboot next year, it's amazing to get some new pieces of information of the pilot! Great job as always!

Could you do a video on The Missing Coach as well please! I know you did talk about in this video but concerning all the information we have about from production phots to reused footage, it would be a fantastic video! Also, a video on the KING of lost media would be fantastic as well. The Doctor Who Missing Episodes

This getting covered makes me happy. Get ready for the Thomas community to bombard the comments section. It's not a bad thing.

On the narration front, I understand that Ringo auditioned for the series by recording himself reading Down the Mine from Gordon the Big Engine and sending that tape in. I think it's possible that that recording was used for the pilot.

I love these videos that, while we don’t quite get the clip, they tend to be a massive step forward

The first Thomas model can be seen outside of Tidmouth sheds as a scrap model during season 1. Gordon's can be seen in the scrapyard in episodes "Toad Stands By" "Halloween" and "Thomas, Percy, and Old Slow Coach"

I thought that someone had finally got the full pilot and uploaded it here that's what I thought this was but it turned out to be this amazingly edited video essay keep up the good stuff

woah I wonder who kingmrharvey is must be someone cool

Here before the algorithm makes its popular

Very interesting video and fantastic dedication on your part! Well done. I and others have a theory which is very possibly true. You see for the digitalisation of classic television, the restoration team would have to refer back to the original film reels and clean them up. Whenever, there would be too much damage to a film reel, alternate takes, reconstructions or poorer copies would be used to fill in the gaps. Thomas And Friends has had a digital release meaning that a lot of the actual film reels from the original series back in the 80s still exist. Now, when looking at the first 3 Seasons, there are some parts where the restoration doesn’t match up with the VHS copies (which were the ones seen on television at the time) and you can see inconsistencies like certain shots being wider, alternative takes being used and grainier VHS footage being used instead. These parts are probably the ones which are too badly damaged for use. However, when looking at both the shot used in Down The Mine that was taken from The Pilot and footage that was Reused from The Missing Coach, there are no differences with the original television edits meaning that for the restoration, they used the original footage. This means that both the footage from The Pilot and The Missing Coach are most likely still with the rest of the raw film reels and could be in a storage, as the production team needed to keep the footage in order to refer back for advertisements, restoration, further releases and music videos (which is why in a lot of the early music videos, you can see deleted scenes or alternate angles of certain shots). If you want more information about this, I suggest you check out Nick Starwinds videos concerning The Missing Coach and alternate footage. Here are the links. The third one is the one comparing the original footage and restored footage kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rpiliddput2dcas.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ot6dlbSEz76to2w.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oZ93lbV5z5fGgGw.html

I am very confident I have the pilot somewhere on a vhs, over xmas I will raid my parents loft to see what I can find.

Thomas and friends use plastic until hit took over and that is when the models became brass models

Thomas is what introduced and got me into trains.

This is amazing its just one tiny step closer into finding this lost footage!!

The Missing Coach may have been completed filming wise minus the narration.

In regards to the music, I think it's very possible the final episode score IS the pilot score, reused wholesale. At the time the pilot would have been made, Mike and Junior would be doing the very first recordings of themes and ideas, so the pilot could have used that. The equally/unjustly rare sizzle reel for TUGS did the same thing, basically using whatever was around in the early days. The final version of down the mine has 2 very short and simple incidental cues. The rest includes Annie and Clarabels theme, which is extremely uncommon and feels out of place, a weird version of Gordons theme which oddly fades in, and a version of the breakdown song with extra offbeat chords. That might've sounded like an alien language, basically the music feels very early to me. I'm thinking Mike not remembering the pilot is because they actually never rescored the final, so in his memory (this was nearly 40 years ago, mind you) he's only scored one version of the episode, which must be the final.

Great job, keep it up!

We’ve found bob the builder‘s pilot. We might be in luck.

Wow! Honestly it's awesome to me that you received any contact back whatsoever. Best to you, and great work!

Someone stole all my thomas VHS tapes as a kid at a garage sale when they weren’t even put out to be sold :( I miss em

The model series will always be the best.

I really like that you care about the people you affect during a search. Sometimes people get so caught up in finding something they forget that these are real people.

I remember watching that episode in particular as a kid, the old tomas episodes had hidden gems in them.

Really lovely video! You went through way more than most of the dedicated fandom has gone through to find this stuff! Just one correction, all the engines were plastic models up to season 5/magic railroad. That's when the engines were made in brass. Budget, like you mentioned a lot! The plastic James model is actually preserved by a private owner and should (hopefully!) Be going to a train show next year to be displayed along with face masks and 4 of the narrow gauge engines that the collector owns.

“Little blue train” Like, that is accurate but... just really? Thomas is not a “train”

I remember watching the story of Tomas passing the sign and Gordon saving him

i do have some info on the pilot, not too much tho. it was about 2:30 minutes long, was NOT voiced by ringo starr and mattel has it on an archive ( the full pilot) . I hope this helps, and good luck!

There’s a few discrepancies I’d like to point out. 1. The Pilot Models for Thomas and Gordon were indeed made of Acrylic sheets for the main bodyshells, but they didn’t make brass models for Thomas and Percy till magic railroad, and Gordon, Henry, James, Edward till series 10. And Toby in series 12. Series 1-5 all the models of engines 1-10 bill,ben, diesel, were constructed of acrylic sheeting 2. The Pilot models for Thomas and Gordon were actually made into the Thomas and Gordon we see in the actual show, with new Marklin chassis and modified shells from the pilot. Changes were made but they still are mostly the pilot shells 3. Any scrap dressing you see of Thomas and Gordon’s bodyshells are actually resin casts taken of the models, but you can see some of Gordon’s wheels off his original pilot chassis as scrap dressing.

I grew up watching the original Thomas the Tank Engine series and I never realized that the narrator was Ringo Starr The Beatles™️ until today.

Yeah! You can just ask Ringo! He’s super easy to contact!

These videos are kinda scary when you watch them at night

Thomas And Friends Is Flawless

I've been watching Thomas since Shining Time Station. I think it's fair to say he is timeless. It's so cool to learn this history about both the original attempt and ultimately the showcase. That you could get the info from the creator herself makes it more special, because she really has given people a gift.

Glad to see that we got more info on this! Great work!

Fun fact: This video is older than most of the people playing Roblox.

In response to the question about music, back when those pilot episodes were shot, British media and television companies often employed the use of a tape library, where large amounts of public domain music was stored for use on programs without the budget for their own music, an example of this is in the film Monty Python and the holy grail, the soundtrack to that film is made up of public domain music because their budget was too tight for original composition.

There is a theory about the pilot that the scenes of the fat controller were scenes from the pilot i mean just look at him and look at him from the rest of season 1

I remembered Thomas and Friends Season 2 but I never knew there's an extra missing episode that was never released like :The Missing Coach.

The missing coach is indeed missing

Now this is epic

I did a little searching today and I found a video on KZfaq called "Thomas' Train Syncro-Vox Test" which seems to indicate that at some point they were considering using human mouths akin to the ones on "Clutch Cargo" for the human models such as Sir Topham Hatt or the workmen Edit: take it with a grain of salt, some people are saying it's fanmade

4:09 The pilot models of Thomas and Gordon were actually modified into the final models used in the show with a more reliable Marklin chassis. All the models in the first two seasons were all made of plastic, and they only started making models out of brass during the third season. The main characters did eventually get brass models made to replace them, as the original plastic models were most likely tired out from years of wear and tear, starting with the Magic Railroad and into the HiT era of the show.

I just found your channel and I love lost media youtubers. Definitely going to binge your channel, love the vids man!!

I'm having a huge deja vu right now, so I probably already commented this, haha, but. When I was little I was so scared of Thomas? I mean, I was fourteen, idk what was wrong with me I just had nightmares and it was awul, haha. Some years after that, the interrnet suddenly started loving to meme Thomas the tank engine and making horror games with the setting and, yes, exactly. My irrational thoughts coming true, awesome. But this video kinda makes me want to see it for reals. I'm, like, an adult now, so I shouldn't be scared anymore haha.

Fun Fact: The models of Thomas and Gordon from the pilot are the exact same ones as the final models. And the final models weren’t made out of brass and were made of plastic, Thomas didn’t get a brass model until ‘Thomas & The Magic Railroad’, while Gordon got 2 brass models for Season 10 of the show.

Honestly gotta love the thomas Fandom we are all fans and care about thomas and dont judge how old we are and still enjoy the series

Holy shit my man even named dropped the boobahs, you've gained my utter attention

4:26 so that's why all the scrap looks like the caricatures

Even though I was born way after the original series I still grew up watching

imagine if the pilot releases on exactly the 23rd of april 2025 😳

Willie Rushton's first narration was *Edward the Blue Engine,* the next book in the series after *Gordon the Big Engine,* where _Down the Mine_ takes place.

Fun fact, the models were actually all made of plastic until the year 1999 when “Thomas And The Magic Railroad” had started filming. Also the model that you showed while comparing the pilot model was actually the brass model used in season 6 to season 12 (2002 to 2009.) the plastic model for Thomas was used almost 20 years, his EXACT same model was used from (1984 until 1998.) his model had no backups so they had to keep refurbishing it every time a crazy scene happened

We will watch your career with great interest

Here's some more information I think you'd like to know. The Thomas and Gordon models from the Pilot would later be rebuilt into the S1 Models (The Thomas model would actually survive way up till the near end of Series 11.) According to @TomProps on Twitter.

All the old models season 1-5 were Perspex. From tatmr until season 12 was made out of brass

I know I’m late, but if you can, Also cover The Missing Coach and the fact that The Flying Scotsman was supposed to make his first appearence in Tenders For Henry. He acually has his tenders shown on screen, but the rest of his incomplete model was not.

Toby's theme was the theme used in the pilot, so I do think Mike and Junior still did the music.

The internet is an amazing place! We are able to find lost pieces of lost media like never before.

I like the theory that “Thomas Goes Fishing” is the pilot, especially since it looks so rudimentary compared to the rest of the season

new info on the pilot? nice

2:22 2:25 Ok that would have been awesome Andrew Lloyd Webber adapting the books he read as a kid into a 2D musical tv show

Great video! Those details were definitely needed and now I finally found them. Thx for the information!

If itv did have the pilot on tape, it would be more then likely recorded over, as is common practice by the beeb to recycle older tapes and record over them. Case in point, most of the early dr who recordings.

mann I remember watching the lost pilot episode on a vhs but that was more than 10 years ago

It's like asking why Kermit the Frog is a muppet.

you and super sonic q upload on the same day? it must be a miracle! -ActuallyJeremyPheonix

Cool video. I’ve always wanted to find out if there was any hidden footage of Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game in 1962.

Keep up the content PLEASE! I’ve fallen in love with your videos!

This Is Epic.

Thought Thomas was an ENGINE.

I like how the Reverend never mentioned God or Christ or anything religious in his stories, even if he was a man of the lord. It shows his dedication to the stories and characters!

Nice video. I'm the same a true corner stone of my childhood 👍🇬🇧

You mean, Thomas the T A N K engine! GODDAMMIT GET IT RIGHT

Very good vid! Love how much dedicated research you did for this. I reckon one day in the future we'll see this footage, though I reckon Missing Coach will be more likely than the pilot. When? Who knows. Maybe when ownership falls from Mattel which, judging by the reaction of the new series of Thomas from fans, may not be that long... :D I'm still hoping, though, for more missing Dr. Who to be located.

Royalty free music used to be sold on vinyl tape or cd compilations. You'd drop a few hundred on it then have the rights to use it on whatever projects you wanted

Obscure comment I wish Thomas was getting the same attention by the new school that Spider-Man is getting

my childhood in a nutshell

As far as I know Ringo Starr DID narrate the pilot, Britt Alcroft said in an interview that when she first met him and tried to get him to be the narrator he offered to narrate a few of the stories to see if she still wanted him. One of the stories Ringo did was 'Down the Mine' and so that became the pilot.

I'm not entirely sure if this is true, it has been years since it happened, but when I broke my elbow back in mid-2009 I had been put in a hospital for multiple days, I remember there was an old VHS player and there was a Thomas the Tank Engine tape that played on loop if the TV wasn't set to the news or to Cartoon Network (It was actually my first time encountering thomas, but still.) I think it was possibly the early version of Down the Mine? I was only 5 at the time so I might just be making up things. However, everytime I've watched the publicly posted (or the actual televised episode) something just felt off. It just didn't uphold the same atmosphere or I remembered one thing being somewhere but it wasn't there at all. Something like that.

0:19 cha cha real smove

Fun fact Thomas the Tank Engine was made with 100% Nigel’s making it

i would love a copy of down the mine pilot

For some reason I find that pilot Gordon's face to be...... creepy...

There were actually pre-internet shows that used royalty-free music, like Donkey Kong Country or Ren & Stimpy.